KUALA LUMPUR – Former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said that Rafizi Ramli does not understand economic and fiscal policies.
Najib made the allegation after Rafizi, who unofficially won the PKR election as its party’s Deputy President critised Najib’s ‘subsidy formula’.
“This is an inverted person who does not understand the economic and fiscal policies.
“Yes, I cut bulk subsidies to transit to targeted subsidies such as packet cooking oil because the bulk subsidies ultimately benefited the rich people and smugglers more. In the end, they benefited the people in our neighbouring countries.
“Yes, among the consequences were government deficit and the government debt dropped for nine years consecutively. However, the savings we got were transferred to cash award in various schemes such as the school assistance scheme, abolishment of school fee, BR1M aid, Kad Siswa which never appeared until I became the PM,” he said.
Through the cash aid, Najib said that the people can choose how they spend the money compared to them being forced to accept the bulk subsidy policy.
On the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M), Najib said that the Barisan Nasional (BN) government had to implement it without increasing the government deficit, increasing the dependency of oil revenues or pillaging from Petronas funds.
“Furthermore, the government deficit dropped nine years in a row. Therefore, the national debt ration to GDP also decreased every year. The government’s dependency on the revenues of oil also decreased every year.
“The nett reserve of Petronas increased from RM30 billion to RM176 billion in May 2018 before the 14th General Election (GE14).
“Meanwhile, the payout for BR1M increase four times from RM500 in 2012 to RM2,000 in 2018 within six years,” said the Member of Parliament (MP) of Pekan.
Najib also said that if the government did not change in GE14, BR1M could have increased to RM2,300 or RM4,000 this year.
“How did the PH government do with its inverted formulas? Deficit increased again. National debt ration increase. Dependency on oil revenue increase. RM84 billion was plundered from Petronas. National assets were sold off.
“The value of Khazanah’s assets dropped 30 percent compared to the increment of almost four folds from RM32 billion to RM116 billion throughout my reign as the PM.
“Economy dropped rapidly. Dividends and interests plummeted. The formula cannot be used. Did the aid and BR1M increase? No. You got RM30. Various assistance were abolished,” Najib said.
In his Tweet, Rafizi said that he has a new hobby of befriending ‘Uncle Google’ to expose Najib’s lies.
He named the first series as #SayaPutarJib in his blog two days ago.
“Perhaps, Najib’s twists can be swallowed whole by his followers but majority of the people still remembers Najib’s hatred towards subsidies.
“Right after he became the Prime Minister in 2009, the first policy he implemented was to cut subsidies. In the internet era, Najib’s twists can be uncovered with the help of Uncle Google,” Rafizi said. -MalaysiaGazette
Read More:
Najib proposes cash aid for B40, M40 every quarter
